With 
Sony and Microsoft gearing up to release a new generation of videogame consoles that boast more realistic graphics, Hollywood’s influence on the gaming biz is getting tougher to ignore.
The enhanced capability of the devices has given game developers the ability to borrow more from filmmakers, blending cinematic excitement with the immersive elements of interactive entertainment.
“Journey” 
is getting used to making the trip to the podium.
After winning big at the D.I.C.E. Awards, in February, thatgamecompany’s “Journey” captured six of the 11 main Game Developers Choice Awards, including Game of the Year, Wednesday evening at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Confab wraps up March 29.
When 
“Disney Infinity” launches later this summer, the videogame-toy hybrid will represent not only a new direction for Disney Interactive, it will also give the Mouse House a unique way to promote its older characters that may not have been worthy of their own high-profile release.
“There are a lot of kids who probably don’t know all about, say, Dumbo, these days,” said Disney Interactive chief Bill Roper at this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. “Could we make an entire game about Dumbo right now? Probably not. But we can insert it [into Infinity].”
Independent 
filmmakers may have Sundance, but indie gamemakers head to San Francisco.
More than 20,000 are gathered at the city’s annual Game Developers Conference through March 29, looking to generate buzz — and hopefully land distribution — given it’s the only show where smaller titles made by teams of fewer than a dozen people can stand on even footing with deep-pocketed studios.
The 
most formidable protagonist in videogames is a 21-year-old woman who must protect her friends and fight off well-armed enemies hell-bent on dispatching her.
The game is “Tomb Raider,” launched March 5, and critics are already singing its praises as a masterful reboot of the 17-year-old franchise. In the relatively short history of videogames, that series, perhaps more than any other, has shown that players are more than willing to accept a female lead character in a fantasy action game.
But when it comes to games that are set in more realistic scenarios, women are rare — and they’re never cast as the primary hero.
After 
seven years, Sony is ready to pull the plug on the PlayStation 3, clearing shelves this fall for the PlayStation 4.
As expected, the PS4 features improved graphics performance over its predecessor, but unlike the PS3, which relied on hardware superiority to woo customers, the new system will focus on other elements as well to lure players away from competing consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo — as well as platforms from Apple and other companies. No price has yet been disclosed.
The 
relationship between Hollywood studios and videogame publishers is evolving, but gamemakers at Thursday’s 16th annual Dice Awards in Las Vegas say there’s still a distance between the two.
“I don’t think they’re completely separate, but I think there are a lot of challenges between the two,” Capcom’s Christian Svensson said at the event, which serves as the Oscars of the vidgame biz, produced by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. “The sheer difference between times of development … is a very hard thing to reconcile. And I don’t know if anyone has really figured out how to make it collaborative. We’ve still got a ways to go.”
The best videogames of 2012 weren’t found on store shelves, but they could be downloaded.
Thatgamecompany’s “Journey” was the big winner at the 16th annual D.I.C.E. Awards, capturing eight awards, including Game of the Year, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction. “The Walking Dead,” an episodic downloadable game based on the Robert Kirkman comic, captured four awards, including Adventure Game of the Year and Downloadable Game of the Year for Telltale Games.
The bulk of the media focus in the videogame world might be on the mobile and consoles, but Valve Software co-founder Gabe Newell thinks they’re looking at the wrong platform.
In his keynote address at the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, Newell evangelized the potential of the PC ecosystem, noting that it would help revolutionize the living room.
The Halo franchise is one of the biggest in the videogame world, but when series creator Bungie Studios walked away from the series after 2010’s “Halo: Reach,” it left Microsoft with a problem.
The series, of course, would continue — but keeping the loyal community fanbase satisfied wouldn’t be easy — and neither would managing a property that had quickly grown into a transmedia giant.
Chris Morris: Journalist 